I thought I would just right a little piece on gaining more work, please note that is aimed at the newbies on this forum, I am not trying to tell the old hands how to suck eggs.
(1) Presentation: smart van/car preferable sign written/mag signs stating your company name and what you do, clean fresh uniform, can include t-shirts, polo jumpers, hats et. Nice printed flyers/cards, again stating what you do (other services besides window cleaning)
(2) Canvassing: go door knocking looking smart and be polite at all times even when turned down, do not apply pressure as this will never work, if a potential customer is humming and harring leave them a card and tell them to call you if and when they decide (this works better) if you drop leaflets off prior to calling this is fine but make sure that you follow up all leaflet drops by knocking a day or so later failure to do this will result in less jobs as the majority of people will put the card/flyer to one side and it will eventually get binned. If the person states they already have a w/c then thank them for their time and walk away DO NOT give them a price undercutting the other w/c as this is totally out of order and will not win you any friends.
(3) Pricing: have in your mind an hourly rate that you would like to achieve (eg £30 per hour) and stick with it DO NOT underprice as you will regret this later and DO NOT get into a price war with the customer, if you price this house @ £12-00 then stick with it DO NOT let the customer knock you back a few quid as you will also regret this.
(4) Canvass on the move: this is a tried and tested system that my son and I use and works well, if we get a call to give a quote on a house and that is agreed then I proceed to clean whilst my son knocks the other doors in that same road. E.G. we had a call from one road where we had no other calls, there were 30 houses in this small road and whilst I cleaned the first my son knocked the others gaining 9 more calls all @ £10 each so we now have a third of that road covered.
(5) Buying work: this always a dodgy one, I personally would never pay more than 2 times it’s worth, i.e I would buy £100 worth of work for £200 and not a penny more. Make sure if you buy from a previous w/c that you are introduced to the calls and have something in writing to state that you have bought the work and that the seller will not go back to the calls to try and regain them at a later date (I’m talking from personal experience here as it happened to me once)
(6) Employing a canvasser: there has been a lot of threads on this forum with this reference (some good some bad) again tread carefully and be sure to set up agreed terms before parting with your money. I have a canvasser getting some work for me within the next week or so I will be able to keep you informed as how this goes as I have never used 1 before.
(7) Setting your target/goals: each week we set a target of gaining at least 5 new customers, this week alone we have already gained 8 new calls without even trying, we have also moved fast this week and have a free day tomorrow so we will go canvassing to hopefully gain a few more. Lets assume you set a goal of 5 new ones every week @ £10 that would generate an extra income of £200 (approx) per month, if you kept this on going within a year you would be either turning work away or employing someone to help you out.
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Being professional: it goes without saying that at all times conduct yourself in a professional manner whilst at a customers house or on the phone and you will be surprised as to how many recommendations you will receive.
(9) Advertising: I personally use yellow pages and it works well for me especially with the cleaning of gutters/facias etc. although it can be costly I find that I get about 5 leads a week from it most of them generating into monthly calls. I have tried the shops windows card etc but this failed for me (perhaps you know differently)
Finally if any other old hands would like to add to this it would be helpfull to the newbies
Jay